No, not Homer Simpson. And not Homer the Greek poet, although the hero of new educational app Learn with Homer IS inspired by him.

Homer here is a cartoon homing pigeon: “a poet and a voyager” who wants to help 3-6 year-olds with their reading. His app went live for iPad this week, and it looks very impressive, styling itself as “the first comprehensive reading app”.

It’s partly a collection of stories, but also phonics exercises, mini-games and a drawing section to get children on the path to reading. Its developer promises that science, history, art and other non-fiction topics all feature, with the app designed around US Common Core educational standards.

There’s also a separate website for parents, where you can track how your children are doing in the app, and share their creations with friends and family using Facebook or email.

Learn with Homer is a free download for iPad from Apple’s App Store, and includes 18 Learn to Read lessons and stories, 12 Discover the World lessons, and access to the parent tools and drawing features. Up to three children can be registered with the app.

Other lessons will be sold in packs through in-app purchases, in a password-protected section of the app. The app looks very well done indeed, and there’s lots of information on the Learn with Homer website about how it works and what the company behind it is trying to achieve.